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DVD

Dracula II: Ascension

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 19th, 2003

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Dracula II drops all the characters from Dracula 2000, fudges the ending of that film, but retains the central idea of Dracula in fact being Judas Iscariot, cursed with eternal life. This time around, his sunlight-burned body is recovered by a group of grad students and their crippled professor with the hope of finding a miracle cure from the regenerative qualities of vampire blood. Meanwhile, a vampire-hunting priest named Uffizi (Jason Scott Lee, no more improbable as Italian than he was as Irish in Tale of the Mummy) is on the trail of Dracula (with minor help from Roy Scheider, putting in a few seconds of screen time).
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Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 18th, 2003

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Fred Ward is a tough, no-nonsense cop. One night (when for some reason he has no partner),he is the victim of an attack, and wakes up with a different face and a new identity. He has been recruited by a shadowy government organization (currently made up of three other people). He is trained by Korean master Chiun (Cabaret MC Joel Grey under lots of makeup) to become a fighting machine. Meanwhile, future starship captain Kate Mulgrew is an army major investigating an industrialist who seems to be fleecing the US military for billions of dollars. All paths will soon merge.

Wings of Desire

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 17th, 2003

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This is closer to a being a tone poem than a narrative, so there is hardly any plot as such. We move through Berlin in the company of angels. They can hear our thoughts, but they cannot interfere or feel the physical world. Two of the angels — Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) are increasingly disenchanted with their existence, and Damiel, falling in love with a trapeze artist, wants to become mortal. This simple story is built on very gradually, and most of the film consists in our hearing the innermost thoughts of various characters, and all these thoughts are presented in poetic (often elliptical) words. The cinematography is quite extraordinarily beautiful.

Pilot’s Wife, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 15th, 2003

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Synopsis

A knock on your door in the middle of the night can change your life forever for Kathryn Lyons this knock comes after her husband’s plane crashes off the coast of Ireland. As the investigation starts to piece together that there was an explosion on board and that her husband may have had something to do with it here perfect life starts to unravel. As she starts to look into her husbands life in an attempt to clear his name she starts to discover that she really did not know her husband at al…
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Midnight Run

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 15th, 2003

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Forget Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop; Midnight Run has got to be one of the funniest cop-buddy films of the genre. True, Midnight Run did not break any records at the box office and was actually panned by a few well-known critics of the time, but the comic action just never lets up. Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin share a rare chemistry. The overkill plot developments just wouldn’t work with any other combination. In all fairness, I wasn’t too thrilled about this one when it first hit the theatres. My wife suggested it and I agreed more out of guilt for all the genre films I’ve inflicted on her.
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Best of the Steve Harvey Show, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 15th, 2003

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This disc is a compilation of the 5 highest rated episodes of the Steve Harvey Show. This TV series ran from 1996-2002 on the WB network and features Steve Harvey (The Original King’s of Comedy) as Steve Hightower ex-1970’s R&B star turned music teacher and assistant principal and Cedric “The Entertainer” (Barbershop) as coach Cedric Wilson and Steve’s best friend and roommate. It also featured your usual high school sitcom cast of characters. The five episodes presented here are:

That’s My Mama- Ste…
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It Came from Beneath the Sea

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 14th, 2003

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One of Ray Harryhausen’s earliest stop motion projects was a military training film on how to build a bridge. In It Came from Beneath the Sea he got to destroy a famous one and create yet another vivid memory for his legion of fans. It Came from Beneath the Sea was the second film I had the pleasure to discuss with Ray Harryhausen (stop motion pioneer) at the 2003 Wonderfest in Louisville. Again I was joined by Einsiders writer Rusty White. You can find the actual interview at: http://einsiders.com/features/interviews/harryhausen.php.

Certainly this could not be considered one of Harryhausen’s most imaginative films.
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The Incredible Hulk (Animated Series)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2003

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Essentially, this is standard Hulk stuff: Bruce Banner wants to stop his horrible transformation, General Ross wants to kill the Hulk, Betty Ross wants to save the man she loves,and all sorts of villains get into the mix. There is a bit more continuity than in some other TV cartoon fare (though not on the level of, say, Gargoyles). The animation is standard TV stuff.Keeping the commercial breaks in so obviously wasn’t necessary, I have to say.

Jeffrey

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2003

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AIDS is at the forefront of the gay community’s consciousness, and Jeffrey (Steven Weber)is frustrated by how complicated sex has become. His solution is to swear it off, and naturally he immediately meets and falls for Steve (Michael T. Weiss). What to do, especially when you are neurotic like Jeffrey. Fortunately (or unfortunately), Jeffrey has plenty of friends and family who want to help out, including Patrick Stewart, whose line about looking like “a gay superhero”suddenly has more bite than it did in 1995.

The Long Ships

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2003

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After a disastrous voyage in which he loses his ship and all his crew, Richard Widmark journeys back from the Mediterranean to Norway (apparently swimming all the way). He say she has discovered the location of a giant bell made of solid gold (don’t ask how well something like that would ring), and along with his brother (Russ Tamblyn) steals the king’s funeral boat(along with his daughter). Off they go for many wild adventures. As you can probably guess, this is an exceedingly silly film, from its eccentric casting on down. But it is very entertaining, and doesn’t take itself seriously.

20 Million Miles to Earth

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 12th, 2003

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20 Million Miles To Earth has always been one of my favorite films. It was from this classic monster fest that I developed my long standing respect for stop motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen. In 1998, I got to meet Ray for the first time as his assistant for a horror convention (unfortunately run by a megalomaniac). It was there that I developed enough of a relationship with him and his lovely wife Diane that I was able to interview him at the 2003 Wonderfest in Louisville. Ray’s time was extremely limited, so I …
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Frida

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 12th, 2003

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This is the story of Frida Kahlo, now recognized as one of Mexico’s greatest artists. Most particularly, the film is the story of her tempestuous love affair with fellow artist Diego Rivera –their loves, their clashes, their politics, their infidelities, their betrayals, and so on. So much attention is paid to this relationship that Kahlo’s art itself slips into the background, which is too bad. That said, this is a tremendously engaging film, with great performances all round.
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It’s My Party

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 11th, 2003

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Eric Roberts, miles away from direct-to-video action fodder, plays Nick, a man in the terminal stages of AIDS. Over the opening credits, we see his long-term relationship with Gregory Harrison rise and disintegrate, and in the present, this relationship and its fallout will have a major role to play at Nick’s party. This party, the heart of the film, is an event he throws to say goodbye to all his friends and family. The story has added poignancy since this is based on an actual event.

Strange Frequency

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 11th, 2003

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Synopsis

This is essentially Twilight Zone or Outer Limits with a rock angle. There are four stories,each a mild horror tale. The format might be rather limiting, though there are some clever ideas.“Disco Inferno,” for instance, posits what hell would be like for headbangers. That’s a cutenotion, but is hard to sustain, even over 22 minutes.

Audio

No surprise that the music dominates the soundtrack, though even then it isn’t quite aspowerful as one might thi…
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Topper & Topper Returns

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 11th, 2003

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Synopsis

Topper tells the tale of Cosmo Topper (Roland Young), a repressed, middle-aged banker,and his liberating encounter with the ghosts of Cary Grant and Constance Bennett. Grant andBennett, irresponsible socialites, die in a car accident without ever having done a good deed.They must make up for this before they can move on, and their good deed is to shake upTopper’s life. This is a gentle comedy, with fabulous character work from Young (who richlydeserved his Oscar nomination)…
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Never On Sunday

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 11th, 2003

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Melina Mercouri plays Illia, a character who makes prostitution seem like a carefree Utopia.She lives in a version of Greece where there only appear to be 5 women, and they are all ladies of the night. Into this extraordinarily male fantasy comes Jules Dassin, a deluded American idealist who wants to save Illia from herself. Naturally, he doesn’t have a hope, and Greek enthusiasm (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding on steroids) will inevitably overcome his anti-fun attitudes. Obviously, the picture has dated quite noticeably, and makes Pretty Woman look like a gritty expose.
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Jungle Book 2, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 10th, 2003

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Synopsis

An all new adventure for all of your favourite characters form Disney’s Jungle Book. Back for more fun we have Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera and Shere Khan of course, Mowgli has moved out of the jungle and into the village but, he misses his old friends. He soon finds an excuse to wander back into the jungle and quickly finds himself hunted by his old enemy Shere Khan. With all new songs and a couple of new characters the fun continues in The Jungle Book 2.

Video

The t…
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Project A2

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 9th, 2003

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Synopsis

The follow-up to Jackie Chan’s Project A, Dragon Mao returns to Hong Kong after defeating Pirate Lo on the high seas. Dragon is assigned to lead the local police force and finds that police corruption is running wild. Framed for a jewelry robbery he must fight for his freedom and his life against a group of spies, pirates and revolutionaries.

Audio

The audio on this disc is an average quality Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. The badly overdubbed voices (part of the appeal o…
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Best Of Charlie’s Angels

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 9th, 2003

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On the heals of the release of Charlie Angels: Full Throttle we have a collection of the five best episodes from season one of the original television show. The five episodes are as follows:

Angeles in Chains-The Angels discover that the sheriff a, prison authorities and the local County Manager are partners in an extortion-murder scheme in which wealthy young women are arrested and virtually enslaved as prostitutes until they sign over all their assets in exchange for an “early release” and the…
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The Shakers

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 6th, 2003

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The topic for this documentary are the Shakers, more properly the “United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing.” The Shakers weren’t around that long: they were celibate, which meant no offspring. However, as the film explores, that didn’t stop them from having a profound impact on American life (they were, for instance, feminist and anti-slavery well ahead of the game).

Audio

A mono soundtrack. Though it might have been nice to hear the Shaker songs in stereo, the sound is still very clean, and without distortion.
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The Congress

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 6th, 2003

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A history and a meditation on the American Congress, both at the institutional and at the architectural level — there are many beautiful shots of the Capitol, and the building becomes as much a character as any of the politicians who strode the stage within its walls. A fascinating documentary, enlivened not only with Burns’ usual fine use of period paintings and photographs,but also with film clips from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Advise and Consent.

Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 6th, 2003

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Synopsis

Fans of blue-collar/redneck humour are in for a treat here. Comics Ron White, Larry theCable Guy, Bill Engvall and Jeff Foxworthy (in that order) perform their routines to a largeconcert hall audience, then team up for a comedy jam. Whether the humour works for you willdepend on your personal taste, of course, but there is some pretty funny material here.

Audio

Dolby 5.1 Surround is arguably overkill for a stand-up routine. Hell, mono would get the jo…
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Frost: Portrait of a Vampire

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 6th, 2003

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The film opens with Gary Busey (playing a blind man with the world’s biggest cane)investigating a vampire killing. An elaborate flashback then begins, telling us how a vampire came to be among us. Among American mercenaries in Afghanistan back in 1989 are Jack Frost and Nat McKenzie. The latter is bitten by a Russian vampire, and gradually begins to change,going over to the dark side. Frost eventually realizes him must hunt his best friend down. I’ll say this for the film: it is very ambitious on a very small budget, globe-hopping from Afghanistanto Mexico to the States, and is filled with combat and vampire CGI.
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The Spirit of 76

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 4th, 2003

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In 2176, the world is a grey, sterile place. All history has been lost. Four scientists (led by David Cassidy of Partridge Family infamy) travel back in time to recover the American Constitution, and revive history. Unfortunately, their time machine malfunctions, and they windup in 1976. Cue the stupidity. Unfortunately, the laughs are very few and far between. We already know that this period had many risible qualities. Just showing them to us isn’t enough.

Me Without You

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 4th, 2003

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We first meet Holly and Michelle in the 70s, when they are 13 and already inseparable friends. They are very different already, though. Holly is bookish and shy. Michelle is beautiful and wild. Over the years, their relationship is tested as they clash, support and sabotage each other. The significant male characters are Kyle Maclachlan as a professor they both have an affair with, and Michelle’s brother, for whom Holly carries a torch through the years.

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